AN ELDERLY couple driven from their house by flooding and forced to spend months in hotels are finally back home.

Barbara Greenwood, 80, and husband Ernest, 87, were one of the first families to return to Normandy Crescent after almost five months living in hotels.

Residents of the Cowley Street were left devastated when a water main running behind the road burst on September 23. It was the second flood in seven years.

And now some of the affected families have moved back into their homes after months of trailing between hotels and temporary accommodation.

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It was the second time Mr and Mrs Greenwood had been forced out of their home by the flooding, which was caused by a 2.3 metre fracture to the main.

Mrs Greenwood said: “We are happy to be back. We have settled in and it’s pretty good. It’s more cosy and people have said that coming in.

“It was a bit surreal. It makes you wonder how you ever managed to stay in the hotels to be honest. I would not want to go through that again.”

Mrs Greenwood added that it was “wonderful” to be back home and she was looking forward to re-uniting with her friends and neighbours.

She added: “It’s a nice little community.

We are all just glad to be back and living a normal life without having to worry where you are going next. It was too long.”

Oxford Mail:

Barbara Greenwood outside her home after it was flooded.

Mother-of-two Mandy Blessing returned to the street last week after spending six months in temporary accommodation in Headington.

She said: “It does not feel quite like home yet because everything has changed.

“Looking back, when the flood initially happened I was a bit innocent of the whole process because I honestly did not believe we would be out of our house for that long and all the stress that means.

“We still felt like we were living through everything. The flood was still prevalent in your mind every single day. You were reminded because you were not in your own home.

“It’s nice to look out of your own window and see familiar faces. It’s just lovely.”

The NHS senior administrator at Cowley’s Raglan House said the disaster had pulled the community together. “It’s that common ground, we have all been through this together. It’s definitely brought us closer together.

Thames Water told residents last month work to replace about 2km of the 24-inch cast iron pipe should be completed by December, at a costof £6m.

Pauline Ximines said she moved back into her home last Saturday and, apart from minor water damage to the floor, it was “fine”.